Net Access: Socket to Me

Share

Net Access: Socket to Me

Imagine surfing the Internet by simply plugging your computer into the wall outlet.

That's the idea behind power line communications, which use low voltage electrical lines to transmit voice and data signals.

Proponents say the technology beats the socks off other broadband methods by offering transmission rates up to five times faster than cable modems for about half the price. Fast, cheap, ubiquitous Internet. It's a geek's wet dream.

But before you start the heavy breathing, consider this: Although the technology has been hyped since the late '90s and companies from Argentina to Israel have been racing to get it up and running, the future of powerline seems murky at best.

And if you're an American, your possibilities of ever getting broadband access through the outlet next to the john are next to zero.

For powerline communication to work, power grids must be retrofitted with adapters that change data signals into frequencies that can be carried over electrical lines. At the residential level, computers are outfitted with a special modem that separates electricity from data.

Electrical companies around the world have spent years trying to cash in on the concept. They're the ones that stand to make the most hay from meeting consumers' voice, Internet and electrical needs in one tidy offering.

Last month, Germany's largest electric company, RWE, jumped ahead of the pack by announcing it would start offering powerline Internet in July. RWE teamed up with Swiss equipment maker Ascom to develop its "PowerNet," which will cost users roughly $22 a month for a basic account.

But while RWE and Ascom are still hot for powerline, other big-name companies have bowed out after spending years and small fortunes on research.

In 1997, Nortel Networks teamed up with Britain's United Utilities to start a venture called Nor.Web. The venture claimed that a pilot program worked, but three years later flushed the project down the toilet, concluding that revamping electrical grids was far too expensive to be profitable.

Just last month, German electronics titan Siemens also pulled the plug on a its powerline initiative, citing similar concerns.

In the United States there are also a few companies racing to commercialize the technology. Perhaps the brashest cheerleader has been Dallas-based Media Fusion. The company hit the spotlight in 1998 with talk about using magnetic fields surrounding power lines to send data and voice transmissions into consumers' homes at a rate of 2.5 gigabits per second.

The company's approach was criticized as unsound by scientists, but that didn't stop the company's chairman from comparing it to "landmark inventions" such as the telephone in testimony before Congress in 2000.

Today, Media Fusion has hit a snag. Its Web page is vacant but for a brief announcement stating that the aforementioned chairman was canned. There are no links to company backgrounds or even contact information. When this reporter tracked down the company's phone number through a telephone operator, the outfit refused to be interviewed.

And despite the continued hype across the ocean, analysts say powerline has no future in America.

One of the toughest roadblocks for powerline's future in the United States is infrastructure, said Joe Laszlo, a broadband analyst with Jupiter Media Metrix.

The electrical networks here are laid out differently than in Europe, where each power substation provides electricity to roughly 200 residences. In the United States, power is distributed via transformers on electrical poles, each of which supplies roughly five residences, he said.

"The upgrade you'd need would be a huge investment on a per-home basis," said Laszlo. "You'd have to change the way the network is put together from the central power plant all the way to the edge of the network."

Another problem is the playing field, which is far from even, said Michael Goodman, a broadband analyst with Yankee Group.

"Being first is a huge advantage, if for no other reason than that you already have a brand name," he said. "If you're a third party coming in, you have an in-depth teaching process."

To the point: At the end of 2000, there were 3.7 million cable modem subscribers, 1.7 million DSL subscribers and zero powerline subscribers in the States.

There are also technical kinks. Tests have shown that home appliances interrupt data streams, causing connections to slow or drop. If you're in the garage welding your car together while your domestic associate is inside downloading the Matrix, he or she might get a bit pissy when that happens.

"Power lines are designed to transmit power, not communications signals," Blair said. "If you put broadband signals on the wires they tend to radiate and cause interference with radio and TV signals. It would be one of the easiest communications signals to intercept."

Which is purportedly what happened in the Nor.Web case: Lampposts near the power lines acted as antennae and rebroadcast the signals as radio waves.

"If this worked, it would be a tremendous breakthrough," Blair said. "But no one has been able to make it work commercially and be cost effective yet."